UNITED STATES' REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI) WILL DELIVER THE PERSPECTIVES IN LEADERSHIP FORUM: "A RENDEVOUZ WITH REAGAN'S LEGACY - LESSONS FOR 2012" @ RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY ON TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2012.
Monday, April 30, 2012
UNITED STATES' REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI) WILL DELIVER THE PERSPECTIVES IN LEADERSHIP FORUM: "A RENDEVOUZ WITH REAGAN'S LEGACY - LESSONS FOR 2012" @ RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY ON TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2012.
UNITED STATES' REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI) WILL DELIVER THE PERSPECTIVES IN LEADERSHIP FORUM: "A RENDEVOUZ WITH REAGAN'S LEGACY - LESSONS FOR 2012" @ RONALD REAGAN PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY ON TUESDAY, MAY 22, 2012.
FIRST LIEUTENANT CAN FLY FLAG RYANAIR FOR O'LEARY
FIRST LIEUTENANT CAN FLY FLAG RYANAIR FOR O'LEARY
BRIAN O'CONNOR
RACING: MICHAEL O’LEARY can secure the main slice of today’s €100,000 prize-money for the Ryanair Chase if First Lieutenant makes light of the drop back to two miles.
The Ryanair boss will relish the thought of picking up his own sponsorship cash since races sponsored by the company he runs have remained frustratingly elusive to the Gigginstown Stud team.
Mossbank’s second to Our Vic in the Cheltenham Ryanair of 2008 is the nearest O’Leary has got to winning that prize, and War Of Attrition was a late switch to the Gold Cup in the first year of the sponsorship, a call that didn’t work out too shabbily.
Ryanair took over the sponsorship of today’s main support event in 2010 and the common denominator since then has been a rather martial factor, with both Captain Cee Bee and Captain Chris emerging best.
First Lieutenant might be a demotion in rank but hardly in merit if he beats the half-dozen opponents scheduled to meet him today.
He already is among the leading contenders in ante-post betting for next year’s Gold Cup on the back of a fine RSA effort at Cheltenham when finding only Bob’s Worth too good after travelling almost too well through the race.
This is a very different assignment, on very different ground, but it’s worth remembering that First Lieutenant was a Grade One winner over hurdles on heavy ground.
Menorah is the clear pick of the two English challengers on his best form, which came a couple of weeks ago at Liverpool when landing a Grade One.
The former top-class hurdler has taken his time getting the hang of things over fences but he looked well suited to decent ground at Aintree, something he isn’t going to get today.
Whoever finishes the extended four miles of the Avon Ri La Touche Cup will deserve plaudits, never mind who wins it. There certainly won’t be many short-cuts but experience will count for a lot and nobody brings more of that to the La Touche than Enda Bolger and Nina Carberry.
Their representative, Arabella Boy, is conspicuously short of race experience but he is sure to have been well schooled over banks at Bolger’s Co Limerick establishment. The ground, though, will be a crucial factor and in these circumstances the dour-staying Inoma James could be an each-way option.
Bolger also runs Doctor Pat, while Willie Mullins’s topweight Uncle Junior is on a retrieval mission after disappointing at Cheltenham.
JP McManus looks likely to have a big influence on the first two races today and there will be plenty of interest in Nicky Henderson’s Nelson’s Bridge, who contests the opening conditions hurdle on the back of losing his unbeaten record behind Simonsig at Cheltenham.
McManus also has At Fishers Cross in the race, though, and it’s noticeable how good the ex-Irish-based horse was on heavy ground in bumpers before getting beaten over hurdles at Ffos Llas last time.
McManus’s Senior Again lurks at the bottom of the ratings in the two-mile handicap chase and shouldn’t have too many problems with the going based on his Leopardstown defeat of Uncle Tom Cobley last January.
Henry De Bromhead’s festival has already been successful with Sizing Europe and his Buckers Bridge looks an interesting contender in the finale considering he has won both a bumper and a point to point on heavy ground.
Novarov has had a consistent season to date and is preferred to Seventy Three in the three-mile handicap hurdle, which is sure to also turn into a real grueller.
THE U.S. SUPREME COURT OPENS THE DOOR TO YOO-YOO BAY PRISONER, ILLINOIS GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN, & U.S. STATES' RIGHTS --- U.S. DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICE IN CHICAGO & SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS REFUSE TO COMMENT
U.S. SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS ILLINOIS GOVERNOR GEORGE RYAN APPEAL
04/30/2012 8:54 PM
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday upheld jailed former Gov. George Ryan's appeal and sent back the case to the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for further consideration.
The move could mean a new trial for Ryan, who is serving a 6 1/2-year sentence for racketeering, conspiracy, tax fraud and making false statements.
"That would be a substantial test, a substantial step towards justice for George Ryan," his friend and attorney, former Gov. Jim Thompson, said Monday.
Last July, the appeals court denied Ryan's appeal and upheld the former governor's corruption convictions. Ryan's attorneys had argued the charges should be overturned because prosecutors never proved he took a bribe.
The appellate court said the U.S. Supreme Court ruling curtailing "honest services" laws didn't apply since Ryan's case clearly involved bribery and kickbacks.
The high court took issue with how the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reached its decision to reject his appeal -- but it stopped well short of overturning Ryan's convictions. Any new trial, if it happened, would solely focus on several fraud convictions, Thompson said.
Both sides must now submit new filings to the 7th Circuit by the end of June, and oral arguments could take place in autumn, Thompson said.
By David G. Savage and Annie Sweeney Chicago Tribune
6:04 p.m. CDT, April 30, 2012
The U.S. Supreme Court has opened the door slightly for former Gov. George Ryan, giving his lawyers another chance to appeal his verdict on corruption charges.
The justices told the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to take another look at Ryan’s appeal and to consider whether he can benefit from a high court ruling in 2010 that struck down part of the law against “honest services” fraud prosecutions.
Lawyers for Ryan had hoped to take advantage of that decision and use it overturn the corruption charges against the former governor. But the 7th Circuit said Ryan’s lawyers had failed to object to the jury instructions at his trial and that it was too late to object now.
Last week, in an unrelated case, the high court ruled that appeals court can sometimes ignore the fact that a defendant did not object on time.
In a brief order on Monday, the high court granted an appeal from Ryan and sent his case back to the 7th Circuit “for further consideration in light of Wood vs. Milyard,” the decision handed down last week.
Former Gov. Jim Thompson, a longtime friend, said he talked to Ryan this morning from his federal prison camp in Terre Haute.
“I told him this is your first victory in six and a half years and you ought to feel proud that we’ve achieved this,” Thompson said in a telephone interview. “He said, ‘That’s great news. Thanks for everything. Let me know what happens next.’ ”
Thompson said he had warned Ryan the decision was coming and told him to call this morning.
U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office declined comment.
Copyright © 2012, Chicago Tribune
LOCKHEED MARTIN DELIVERS LAST AMP C-5 TO U.S. AIR FORCE
C-5 GALAXY AT ABBOTTSFORD INTERNATIONAL AIRSHOW 2011
LOCKHEED MARTIN DELIVERS LAST AMP C-5 TO U.S. AIR FORCE
MARIETTA, Ga., April 30, 2012 – Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] completed delivery of the 79th and final C-5 Galaxy aircraft of the current Avionics Modernization Program at a ceremony at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., on April 27.
“We are very proud of our AMP team,” said Greg Ulmer, vice president of the C-5 program, “This delivery continues the ever-growing legacy of the C-5 Galaxy and the critical role it plays in supporting the warfighter across the globe for many years to come.”
Aircraft 70-448 will be assigned to the Air Force Reserve 433rd Airlift Wing at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas.
The AMP program is the first part of a two-step modernization process. AMP began in 1998 and incorporates a mission computer, a glass cockpit with digital avionics, autopilot capabilities and state-of-the-art communications, navigation and surveillance components for air traffic management.
The second phase of the C-5 modernization effort is the Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program. Of the 79 C-5s that received the AMP modifications, 52 will be upgraded with newer, quieter CF-6 engines and more than 70 additional improvements as part of the transition to becoming a C-5M Super Galaxy.
The Super Galaxy is America’s premier global direct delivery weapon system and the only strategic airlifter capable of linking the homeland directly to the warfighter in all theaters of combat without refueling. It was recently the first U.S. airlifter to fly a direct polar overflight from the United States to Afghanistan.
The C-5 can carry twice the cargo of other U.S. strategic airlift systems and is the only strategic airlifter capable of carrying 100 percent of certified air-transportable cargo.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 123,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.
LOCKHEED MARTIN WINS $254 MILLION SUPPORT CONTRACT FOR U.S. DEFENSE CIVILIAN PERSONNEL DATA SYSTEM
LOCKHEED MARTIN WINS $254 MILLION SUPPORT CONTRACT FOR U.S. DEFENSE CIVILIAN PERSONNEL DATA SYSTEM
Human Resources system supports more than 800,000 civilians
Rockville, Md. - April 30, 2012 – Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] was recently awarded a $254.7 million Department of Defense contract to continue supporting the Defense Civilian Personnel Data System (DCPDS). Under the contract, Lockheed Martin will provide sustainment, maintenance, operations, hosting and development support services for the Human Resources system that supports more than 800,000 Defense Department civilians. The award was a competitive sole source indefinite-delivery-indefinite-quantity contract, with the potential for additional task orders totaling up to $420 million.
“The DCPDS Program has been an integral part of our core business and capabilities for the past decade,” said Willie Callahan, Vice President, IS&GS-Defense IT Services. “The dedication and innovation that our employees in San Antonio have put into this program is inspiring, from our first win in 1999 through the present. As the leading provider of IT Services to the federal government, we are pleased to continue supporting the civilians who serve our country.”
Since 1999, Lockheed Martin has provided IT services support to the DCPDS program and assisted the Defense Civilian Personnel Advisory Service in achieving many milestones, including migrating from a client-server to a web-based architecture, upgrading the E-Business suite system, and migrating four user groups into Lockheed Martin’s Denver Data Center.
The contract begins with a 18-month base and includes five one-year options employing approximately 120 individuals including subcontractors. The Lockheed Martin team includes Kforce Government Solutions Inc., STG Inc., Diversified Technical Services, Inc. (DTSI), Diligent Technologies Corporation, and Object CTalk, Inc.
The work will take place in San Antonio, Texas; Lockheed Martin’s Denver Data Center; and three military sites.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 123,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.
U.S. ARMY AWARDS LOCKHEED MARTIN $391 MILLION FOR COUNTERFIRE PRODUCTION
U.S. ARMY AWARDS LOCKHEED MARTIN $391 MILLION FOR COUNTERFIRE PRODUCTION
SYRACUSE, N.Y., April 30, 2012 – The U.S. Army awarded Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] $391 million in production orders for a new radar system that provides soldiers with enhanced 360-degree protection from rocket, mortar and artillery fire.
The orders represent the execution of two contract options for a total of 33 AN/TPQ-53 (Q-53) counterfire target acquisition radars – formerly designated EQ-36 during their development and initial production – to be delivered by the end of 2014. The options include spares, testing and training materials. If all options are exercised, 38 additional low- and full-rate production systems could be added and the total contract value would exceed $800 million.
“The Q-53 is in production and has been battlefield-proven by the U.S. Army in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Lee Flake, program director for counterfire target acquisition radar programs at Lockheed Martin’s Mission Systems & Sensors business. “The radar detects, classifies and tracks enemy indirect fire, as well as locating its source, in either 360- or 90-degree modes that give soldiers greater protection than ever before.”
Mounted on a five-ton truck, the Q-53 can be rapidly deployed, automatically leveled and remotely operated with a laptop computer or from a fully equipped climate-controlled command vehicle.
Lockheed Martin won the competitive development contract for the EQ-36 radar in 2007. Responding to urgent needs statements from theater and following early program successes, the Army awarded the company an accelerated contract for 12 initial production systems in July 2008 and a contract with options for an additional 20 systems in April 2010. In fall of 2010, the Army began deploying EQ-36 systems to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lockheed Martin submitted its bid for this current contract in open competition in September 2011.
Work on the Q-53 radar contract will be performed at Lockheed Martin facilities in Syracuse, N.Y., Moorestown, N.J., Akron, Ohio, and Clearwater, Fla.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs about 123,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The Corporation's net sales for 2011 were $46.5 billion.
U.S. DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICES IN CHICAGO & SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS REFUSE TO COMMENT ON STATE INVESTIGATION OF OPEN PAYMENTS FOR ILLINOIS TRANSPORTATION & HIGHWAYS JOBS PROGRAMS UNDER IMPEACHED & FEDERALLY SENTENCED FORMER ILLINOIS GOVERNOR BLAGOJEVICH
U.S. DISTRICT ATTORNEYS OFFICES IN CHICAGO & SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS REFUSE TO COMMENT ON STATE INVESTIGATION OF OPEN PAYMENTS FOR ILLINOIS TRANSPORTATION & HIGHWAYS JOBS PROGRAMS UNDER IMPEACHED & FEDERALLY SENTENCED FORMER ILLINOIS GOVERNOR BLAGOJEVICH
By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, April 30, 7:21 PM
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois’ top transportation official said Monday she approved more than $3 million in questionable payments for a 2008 summer jobs program, which caught the interest of federal investigators, because arm-twisting from then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office made her fear for her job.
Transportation Secretary Ann Schneider was the Department of Transportation’s finance director when Blagojevich’s office was pushing for rapid payment of $3.1 million to five nonprofits participating in the program.
Schneider said she ensured there would be follow-up scrutiny but approved the checks from the state’s highway construction fund despite evidence that participants were doing ineligible tasks unrelated to transportation, such as rearranging furniture, conducting community surveys and working at golf courses.
“We were trying to slow it down to make sure there were commonplace safeguards in place, but there was a great deal of pressure to get this done in a very short timeframe,” Schneider said in an interview.
A report released Monday by the state’s Executive Inspector General said the agency should seek reimbursement of nearly $644,000 it overpaid the nonprofits to hire teenagers under the program launched by Blagojevich. The impeached governor, who was convicted on unrelated corruption charges, began serving a prison sentence last month.
When the inspector general referred the matter in 2010 to the state attorney general, officials indicated it was part of a federal investigation, according to the report, which didn’t say who began the probe. U.S. attorney’s offices in Chicago and Springfield declined comment.
The report did not recommend any employees be disciplined but said an internal IDOT audit — which Schneider said she ordered — turned up the overpayments.
The $7.8 million program was part of Blagojevich’s response to a rash of Chicago shootings in early 2008. His Department of Human Services was in charge, and IDOT’s road fund was targeted as the checking account.
Monday’s report redacted names that surfaced during the investigation. But job titles remained, identifying Schneider and general counsel Ellen Schanzle-Haskins. It’s unclear whether other employees involved remain on staff. Schneider said the agency will “go forward” without penalizing anyone.
Asked Monday why she didn’t object to paying money without proper documentation, Schneider said: “That’s a good question.” But she said she and agency lawyers believed the payments were defensible given the agency allowed itself subsequent examination of the records.
She and Schanzle-Haskins both told investigators that they believed resistance would get them fired, according to the report.
A spokeswoman for Gov. Pat Quinn, Brooke Anderson, said senior IDOT managers have been “counseled on monitoring procedures and how to ensure this never happens again.” She said the administration implemented other recommended changes. However, those recommendations weren’t made public in the report.
Auditors who settled on repayment of $644,000 — mostly unpaid payroll taxes —said much more money was likely misspent but pursuing it would mean long legal battles over individual timesheets.
The reimbursement amounts to about 8 percent of the $7.8 million total, which investigators termed “as problematic as it was ambitious.” Schneider said the agency has recovered $170,000 from one organization but four others are contesting the issue.
The program reportedly employed 3,500 teens and young adults for eight weeks. The Department of Human Services denied an Associated Press public-records request last year for names of the participants.
IDOT officials approved the plan as long as road-fund money was used on transportation-related projects. But agreements weren’t signed with the nonprofits, which did the hiring, until well after the project was under way and IDOT didn’t monitor it.
The first half of the money was paid in August 2008. Timesheets necessary for the second payment in September were missing, vague or incomplete, or clearly showed ineligible work such as “conflict resolution class” and “event planning.”
Schneider told investigators she was “not necessarily happy” about arranging to use road money for the project. She said given the circumstances she did what she could to ensure accountability.
U.S. HOUSE COMMITTEE POLICY CHAIRMAN TOM PRICE, M.D. (R-GA)'S STATEMENT ON THIRD YEAR WITHOUT A U.S. SENATE BUDGET
PRICE STATEMENT ON THIRD YEAR WITHOUT A U.S. SENATE BUDGET
Washington, D.C.– House Republican Policy Committee Chairman Tom Price, M.D. (R-GA) issued the following statement marking three years since Senate Democrats advanced a budget.
“Sunday marks the third year since the Democrat-led Senate has passed a budget – an embarrassing record of recklessness and failed leadership,” said Chairman Price. “Meanwhile, for four consecutive years, President Obama has presided over trillion dollar plus deficits.
Democrats are choosing to ignore our fiscal crisis even as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has identified the debt as the greatest threat to our national security. They are putting our nation at risk while threatening our economy with more debt and the threat of ever higher taxes.
That've is why, for two years in a row, the Republican-led House of Representatives has advanced a bold budget proposal outlining our positive vision for the future –one in which our nation cannot only grow and prosper but where we do not leave a mountain of debt to our children and grandchildren. Tackling this crisis now means we avoid even more painful decisions in the future. The Democrat-led Senate ought to do more than complain about our budget. They ought to pass one of their own.”
###
AN OFFENSE AGAINST FREE MARKET CAPITALISM: THE EXPORT-IMPORT BANK
AN OFFENSE AGAINST FREE MARKET CAPITALISM: THE EXPORT-IMPORT BANK
Brian Darling + TOWNHALL.COM
A 1932 creation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Export-Import Bank was meant to facilitate trade between the United States and other nations.
Its initial focus was lending to the old Soviet Union. But over the years, the Ex-Im Bank portfolio has greatly diversified.
Eighty years on, it has loaned billions to numerous foreign nations and companies. The idea, as always, is to encourage those foreign entities to purchase U.S. goods. In reality, however, the so-called bank has outlived its usefulness.
Today, the Ex-Im Bank is fast approaching its statutory cap of $100 billion in loans, and its charter is expiring. With the support of many in Congress, that bank has requested increased loan authority and reauthorization of its charter. In this situation, a do-nothing Congress is the taxpayers’ best friend. It could reduce their exposure to billions of dollars in potential loan losses simply by letting the clock run out on the Ex-Im Bank.
Congressional Quarterly reports that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) are working on a deal to bulldoze conservative opponents of reauthorization in the House. In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has pledged to bring a bill to the floor soon. Most likely Reid will green-light Sen. Maria Cantwell’s (D-Wash.) bill, which would extend the bank’s lease until 2015 and boost its lending authority to $140 billion.
While serving in the Senate, Barack Obama regarded this bank is an example of failed government policy. In 2008 he called the Ex-Im Bank "little more than a fund for corporate welfare.”
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) agrees with those sentiments. Writing in the Washington Examiner, he exposed the bank as a vehicle for international crony capitalism. The Ex-Im Bank’s practice of loaning to private companies is plain “wrong,” he explained, "because all companies – foreign and domestic –should compete on a level playing field, so that success goes to those companies who offer the best products and services at the lowest prices.” .
Beyond doubt, the bank has made loan decisions based on politics, rather than the beneficiary’s ability to repay debts. Both conservatives and liberals can recognize the moral hazard of that practice.
The Wall Street Journal opined that "if the GOP wants to have a principled battle about fiscal waste and market distortions, this is a good one.” Ken Blackwell wrote here at Townhall that “if the mortgage crisis, student loan crisis, and the disastrous failure of green-energy firms have taught us anything, it is government has a unique ability to destroy that prosperity and ruin lives while sticking taxpayers with outrageous bills.” These sentiments are spot on.
This week, the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program reported that TARP —the federal program to bail out financial institutions—has lost $60 billion so far, with $118.5 billion in loans still outstanding. That money comes out of taxpayer’s wallets, and so do Ex-Im Bank losses. Back in 1987, the Ex-Im Bank sought a $3 billion bailout for bad loans according to the Los Angeles Times. Increased loan authority would put taxpayers on the hook for even bigger losses.
Even loans that don’t go bad often wind up hurting U.S. employers and consumers. Chris Chocola of the Club for Growth notes that the Ex-Im often subsidizes foreign competitors of U.S. firms. Writing in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, he gives the example of the bank financing “foreign airlines that in turn purchase American aircraft, allowing them to compete against U.S.-based carriers. These foreign companies use our subsidy to offer lower prices since American companies cannot qualify for this corporate welfare, and they, in turn, lose business."
And the bank doesn’t restrict its dubious lending practices to foreign entities. Among its domestic “clients” are the now famously bankrupt Enron and Solyndra.
The bottom line is this: The Ex-Im Bank uses taxpayer resources to prop up government- favored companies. And, all to often, government-favored companies are bad investments.
This slush fund for foreign business and domestic cronies should be terminated. That would protect taxpayers from bad investments and protect free markets from the distortion of federal favoritism.
PROSPECTS FOR GEORGIA-NATO COOPERATION DISCUSSED WITH POLAND
PROSPECTS FOR GEORGIA-NATO COOPERATION DISCUSSED WITH POLAND
Georgia, Tbilisi, April 26 / Trend N.Kirtzkhalia /
Chicago Summit 2012 presents a significant opportunity for the revision of mechanisms linking Georgia and the alliance to further progress towards integration of Georgia into NATO, Georgian Security Council Secretary Giga Bokeria and head of the National Security Bureau of Poland Stanislaw Koziej said following the meeting in Tbilisi on Thursday.
During the meeting the sides stressed that the alliance should remain open for enlargement and partnerships to respond to modern challenges of a global nature and deal with threats. They also stressed that Georgia's participation in NATO operations contributes to the deepening of relations between Georgia and NATO.
During the meeting the sides discussed issues related to international security and Georgian-Polish cooperation.
Particular attention was paid to the deepening of European integration of Georgia, including cooperation with the EU within the framework of a unified security and defence policy. Both sides expressed hope for the successful conclusion of negotiations between Georgia and the EU on association and noted the need for further negotiations on liberalization of visa regime.
The sides agreed that Georgia's European perspective should be associated with the implementation of mandatory reforms with achieved progress.
The parties noted that the restoration of territorial integrity of Georgia must take place peacefully, respecting international law, which coincides with the position of the EU. The parties stressed the need to monitor the implementation of the peace agreement signed in August-September 2008 with the participation of the EU and noted that a breach of this agreement contributes to instability in the region.
Stressing the positive role of the EU monitoring mission, the parties expressed their regret at the non-admission of the mission to the occupied territories. They also discussed the possibility of further EU involvement in the resolution of the existing Georgian crisis.
The parties stated that they support the continuation of cooperation between Georgia and Poland in the military and defence sector.
The parties also exchanged information with regard to matters of strategic and defence planning and assessed this area as an important direction for future cooperation.
Due to the energy security the sides stressed Georgia's readiness and its role in the development of strategically important European projects and expressed a positive attitude towards the development of cooperation between Georgia and Poland.
Do you have any feedback? Contact our journalist at agency@trend.az
LITHUANIAN PM ADVOCATES GEORGIAN-NATO MEMBERSHIP
LITHUANIAN PM ADVOCATES GEORGIAN-NATO MEMBERSHIP
by DFWATCH STAFF | Apr 30 + DEMOCRACY FREEDOM WATCH
TBILISI, DFWatch – The prime ministers of Georgia and Lithuania today signed a memorandum of understanding.
The MoU deals with cooperation within local government between Lithuania’s national assembly, the Seimas’s Committee on State Administration and Local Government and the corresponding committee in the Georgian parliament.
Lithuania’s prime minister Andrius Kubilius said at a press conference after the meeting that he hopes the day when Georgia will become NATO member is not far away.
He noted that Georgia is a strong partner of NATO, and highlighted the size of the Georgian contingent in NATO operations. Georgia is one of the leading countries in this regards.
Andrius Kubilius expressed hope that the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago will be important and successful for aspirant countries as Georgia.
Giorgi Baramidze, Georgia’s vice prime minister, also expressed hope that certain progress will be achieved at the Chicago summit in terms of Georgia’s NATO integration.
At the press conference, Baramidze noted that Lithuania is one of the most important partners for Georgia on the way to NATO integration. He emphasized that in the second half of 2013, Lithuania will have the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“We hope by this time, negotiations about visa liberalization, association and free trade, which we started this year, will get closer to an end. So cooperation with Lithuania in regards to EU integration will be very important.”
He said that Lithuania is very active in widening Georgia’s group of friends and to strengthen the support for Georgia ahead of the Chicago summit.
Travelling with Kubilius was a delegation from the Seimas’s Committee on State Administration and Local Government.
by DFWATCH STAFF | Apr 30 + DEMOCRACY FREEDOM WATCH
TBILISI, DFWatch – The prime ministers of Georgia and Lithuania today signed a memorandum of understanding.
The MoU deals with cooperation within local government between Lithuania’s national assembly, the Seimas’s Committee on State Administration and Local Government and the corresponding committee in the Georgian parliament.
Lithuania’s prime minister Andrius Kubilius said at a press conference after the meeting that he hopes the day when Georgia will become NATO member is not far away.
He noted that Georgia is a strong partner of NATO, and highlighted the size of the Georgian contingent in NATO operations. Georgia is one of the leading countries in this regards.
Andrius Kubilius expressed hope that the upcoming NATO summit in Chicago will be important and successful for aspirant countries as Georgia.
Giorgi Baramidze, Georgia’s vice prime minister, also expressed hope that certain progress will be achieved at the Chicago summit in terms of Georgia’s NATO integration.
At the press conference, Baramidze noted that Lithuania is one of the most important partners for Georgia on the way to NATO integration. He emphasized that in the second half of 2013, Lithuania will have the Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
“We hope by this time, negotiations about visa liberalization, association and free trade, which we started this year, will get closer to an end. So cooperation with Lithuania in regards to EU integration will be very important.”
He said that Lithuania is very active in widening Georgia’s group of friends and to strengthen the support for Georgia ahead of the Chicago summit.
Travelling with Kubilius was a delegation from the Seimas’s Committee on State Administration and Local Government.
U.S. SENATOR RAND PAUL (R-KY) SEEKS TO BLOCK U.S.-SWISS TAX TREATY CHANGE ON SWISS ACCOUNTS
E.U. BANKS WILL DECLINE WITH TOUGHER SWEDISH TAX RULES, READ MORE:
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-29/eu-bank-targets-rebuffed-by-swedes-seeking-tougher-rules?category=%2Fnews%2Flaw%2F
U.S. SENATOR RAND PAUL (R-KY) SEEKS TO BLOCK U.S.-SWISS TAX TREATY CHANGE ON SWISS ACCOUNTS
By David Voreacos and Richard Rubin April 30, 2012 10:06 AM EDT + BLOOMBERG
Senator Rand Paul is blocking an amendment to a U.S.-Swiss tax treaty , slowing Switzerland’s handover of data on thousands of Americans with bank accounts hidden from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
The protocol, negotiated in September 2009, would amend a 1996 treaty and make it more difficult for Switzerland to refuse requests from the IRS for tax information about U.S. customers of Swiss banks. The U.S. is cracking down on secret accounts held by its citizens at UBS AG (UBSN), Credit Suisse AG (CSGN), Wegelin & Co. and other financial institutions.
Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said the protocol is too “sweeping” and would threaten protections under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure. Paul said he is exercising his privilege to delay a Senate vote.
“We’re concerned about the due process of whether or not people have any kind of process before their records are looked at, the privacy of your banking records,” Paul said in an interview last week. “There needs to be some constitutional protections to your banking records.”
President Barack Obama sent the protocol to the Senate in January 2011, and the Foreign Relations Committee approved it July 26. Paul, a critic of the IRS who won his seat in 2010 with the backing of the Tea Party movement, could require Democrats who control the Senate to spend a week of floor time before voting to ratify the protocol, which requires assent by two- thirds of the senators. He said his office discussed changes with the Swiss ambassador.
No Easy Out “The hard part about finding a compromise is it’s a treaty and I don’t know that they’re willing to rewrite the treaty for me,” Paul said. “But I don’t know any easy way out of the situation.”
Under the current treaty, the Swiss can grant a U.S. request seeking data on a taxpayer suspected of “ tax fraud and the like,” which involves acts such as using false documents or third parties to disguise account ownership. The Swiss won’t hand over data if taxpayers are suspected of evasion, a view upheld April 5 by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court.
The new U.S.-Swiss protocol includes language that would prevent Swiss officials from denying an information request on the grounds that it would violate domestic bank-secrecy laws. The protocol would allow the U.S. to request account data without specifying taxpayers by name.
Swiss Ratification While Switzerland’s lawmakers approved amending the treaty, the country’s federal government won’t ratify the protocol until both countries agree on a solution that ends negotiations on the investigation of Swiss banks, Finance Minister Eveline Widmer- Schlumpf said before a vote in the Swiss parliament on March 5.
Switzerland will grant administrative assistance, including for group requests, in cases where the U.S. tax authorities produce clear evidence of a suspected offense by a bank and can detail a “pattern of behavior,” according to the amendment.
Philip West, a former international tax counsel at the U.S. Treasury Department during President Bill Clinton ’s administration, said Paul’s move to block the treaty amendment is “impairing” the U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion .
“It’s wrongheaded, it’s inappropriate,” said West, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington . “Whether this is the senator’s motive or not, it smacks of protecting financial secrecy for those who may have committed criminal tax fraud in the U.S.”
‘Misconstrues the Nature’ Paul, he said, “misconstrues the nature of what’s going on in that treaty and the right of the tax inspector to review the books and records of persons who might be subject to taxation.” West said the constitutional right of the agency to review such records “has never been questioned” by U.S. courts.
Senator John Kerry , chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said failure to ratify the protocol hurts the U.S. overseas.
“The consequences are that we are losing credibility globally, in terms of our accountability,” said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Nathan Hochman, a former assistant attorney general who oversaw the Justice Department ’s tax division, said he “applauds” Paul’s concern for taxpayers’ privacy.
“Too often in the pursuit of these records, the account holders’ privacy is not fully considered in figuring out processes to obtain these records for government investigations,” said Hochman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and is now a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP in Santa Monica , California .
‘Enough Horsepower’ The current treaty, he said, lets the U.S. pursue records through mutual legal assistance treaties and tax information exchange agreements. They “provide the government with more than enough horsepower to obtain the records they are seeking,” Hochman said.
The IRS wants to “make it easier for sweeping looks at records, and I’m always a little bit worried about sweeping, sifting through millions of records looking for things,” Paul said. “If you’re accused of a crime, someone ought to have some evidence before they go sifting through your records.”
Tax attorney William Sharp, who represents clients with foreign accounts, said Paul’s objections to the protocol will hurt the U.S. enforcement of tax law.
“We’re losing global credibility by mandating treaty concessions, obtaining those concessions, and then not approving them for almost three years,” said Sharp of Sharp Kemm PA of Tampa, Florida. “What Senator Paul and others don’t recognize is that the use of bank secrecy puts the IRS at a special disadvantage. When you go offshore, you’re off the radar.”
Offshore Wealth Center Switzerland , the world’s biggest center for offshore wealth, is trying to change its image as a haven for undeclared assets following a crackdown on tax evasion by U.S. authorities.
The Justice Department and IRS have sought the treaty change as they have conducted criminal probes of 11 Swiss financial institutions. The U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion picked up in 2009, when prosecutors charged UBS, the largest Swiss bank, with aiding tax evasion by U.S. clients.
UBS avoided prosecution by paying $780 million, admitting it fostered tax evasion, and giving the IRS data on more than 250 accounts. It later turned over data on another 4,450 accounts.
Prosecutors have since filed criminal charges against at least 21 foreign bankers, advisers and attorneys and about 50 U.S. taxpayers. The clients’ banks included UBS; Zurich-based Credit Suisse, the second-largest Swiss bank; and London-based HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Europe ’s largest bank, prosecutors said.
Target of Probe On July 15, Credit Suisse said it was a target of a criminal probe over former cross-border private-banking services for U.S. customers. Six days later, seven current and former Credit Suisse bankers were indicted on a charge of conspiring to help U.S. clients evade taxes through secret accounts.
Prosecutors also secured an indictment on Feb. 2 against Wegelin & Co., the 270-year-old private bank that was the first Swiss lender to be criminally charged.
The IRS said 33,000 U.S. taxpayers with offshore accounts have avoided prosecution since 2009 by entering a limited amnesty program, paying back taxes and identifying those who helped them hide their accounts from authorities. Hundreds of taxpayers in the program gave prosecutors information that has helped build criminal cases against bankers and advisers.
HSBC’s Swiss private bank has provided lists of employees to assist the U.S. with investigations into tax evasion, a Geneva-based spokesman for the firm said yesterday.
Tax Compliance Act The debate over the Swiss protocol comes as the administration seeks to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. Congress passed the measure as part of a jobs package in 2010. It is estimated to generate $8.7 billion over 10 years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
FATCA bypasses other governments and applies to non-U.S. banks. The banks must report the identities of their U.S. customers to the IRS and withhold money from the accounts of customers who don’t provide enough information.
Charles Miller , a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment on Paul’s opposition to the protocol. Dean Patterson, an IRS spokesman, and Sabrina Siddiqui, a Treasury spokeswoman, declined to immediately comment.
To contact the reporters on this story: David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey , at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net ; Richard Rubin in Washington at rrubin12@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net ; Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net
http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-29/eu-bank-targets-rebuffed-by-swedes-seeking-tougher-rules?category=%2Fnews%2Flaw%2F
U.S. SENATOR RAND PAUL (R-KY) SEEKS TO BLOCK U.S.-SWISS TAX TREATY CHANGE ON SWISS ACCOUNTS
By David Voreacos and Richard Rubin April 30, 2012 10:06 AM EDT + BLOOMBERG
Senator Rand Paul is blocking an amendment to a U.S.-Swiss tax treaty , slowing Switzerland’s handover of data on thousands of Americans with bank accounts hidden from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service.
The protocol, negotiated in September 2009, would amend a 1996 treaty and make it more difficult for Switzerland to refuse requests from the IRS for tax information about U.S. customers of Swiss banks. The U.S. is cracking down on secret accounts held by its citizens at UBS AG (UBSN), Credit Suisse AG (CSGN), Wegelin & Co. and other financial institutions.
Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said the protocol is too “sweeping” and would threaten protections under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which guards against unreasonable search and seizure. Paul said he is exercising his privilege to delay a Senate vote.
“We’re concerned about the due process of whether or not people have any kind of process before their records are looked at, the privacy of your banking records,” Paul said in an interview last week. “There needs to be some constitutional protections to your banking records.”
President Barack Obama sent the protocol to the Senate in January 2011, and the Foreign Relations Committee approved it July 26. Paul, a critic of the IRS who won his seat in 2010 with the backing of the Tea Party movement, could require Democrats who control the Senate to spend a week of floor time before voting to ratify the protocol, which requires assent by two- thirds of the senators. He said his office discussed changes with the Swiss ambassador.
No Easy Out “The hard part about finding a compromise is it’s a treaty and I don’t know that they’re willing to rewrite the treaty for me,” Paul said. “But I don’t know any easy way out of the situation.”
Under the current treaty, the Swiss can grant a U.S. request seeking data on a taxpayer suspected of “ tax fraud and the like,” which involves acts such as using false documents or third parties to disguise account ownership. The Swiss won’t hand over data if taxpayers are suspected of evasion, a view upheld April 5 by the Swiss Federal Administrative Court.
The new U.S.-Swiss protocol includes language that would prevent Swiss officials from denying an information request on the grounds that it would violate domestic bank-secrecy laws. The protocol would allow the U.S. to request account data without specifying taxpayers by name.
Swiss Ratification While Switzerland’s lawmakers approved amending the treaty, the country’s federal government won’t ratify the protocol until both countries agree on a solution that ends negotiations on the investigation of Swiss banks, Finance Minister Eveline Widmer- Schlumpf said before a vote in the Swiss parliament on March 5.
Switzerland will grant administrative assistance, including for group requests, in cases where the U.S. tax authorities produce clear evidence of a suspected offense by a bank and can detail a “pattern of behavior,” according to the amendment.
Philip West, a former international tax counsel at the U.S. Treasury Department during President Bill Clinton ’s administration, said Paul’s move to block the treaty amendment is “impairing” the U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion .
“It’s wrongheaded, it’s inappropriate,” said West, a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP in Washington . “Whether this is the senator’s motive or not, it smacks of protecting financial secrecy for those who may have committed criminal tax fraud in the U.S.”
‘Misconstrues the Nature’ Paul, he said, “misconstrues the nature of what’s going on in that treaty and the right of the tax inspector to review the books and records of persons who might be subject to taxation.” West said the constitutional right of the agency to review such records “has never been questioned” by U.S. courts.
Senator John Kerry , chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said failure to ratify the protocol hurts the U.S. overseas.
“The consequences are that we are losing credibility globally, in terms of our accountability,” said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat.
Nathan Hochman, a former assistant attorney general who oversaw the Justice Department ’s tax division, said he “applauds” Paul’s concern for taxpayers’ privacy.
“Too often in the pursuit of these records, the account holders’ privacy is not fully considered in figuring out processes to obtain these records for government investigations,” said Hochman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush and is now a partner at Bingham McCutchen LLP in Santa Monica , California .
‘Enough Horsepower’ The current treaty, he said, lets the U.S. pursue records through mutual legal assistance treaties and tax information exchange agreements. They “provide the government with more than enough horsepower to obtain the records they are seeking,” Hochman said.
The IRS wants to “make it easier for sweeping looks at records, and I’m always a little bit worried about sweeping, sifting through millions of records looking for things,” Paul said. “If you’re accused of a crime, someone ought to have some evidence before they go sifting through your records.”
Tax attorney William Sharp, who represents clients with foreign accounts, said Paul’s objections to the protocol will hurt the U.S. enforcement of tax law.
“We’re losing global credibility by mandating treaty concessions, obtaining those concessions, and then not approving them for almost three years,” said Sharp of Sharp Kemm PA of Tampa, Florida. “What Senator Paul and others don’t recognize is that the use of bank secrecy puts the IRS at a special disadvantage. When you go offshore, you’re off the radar.”
Offshore Wealth Center Switzerland , the world’s biggest center for offshore wealth, is trying to change its image as a haven for undeclared assets following a crackdown on tax evasion by U.S. authorities.
The Justice Department and IRS have sought the treaty change as they have conducted criminal probes of 11 Swiss financial institutions. The U.S. crackdown on offshore tax evasion picked up in 2009, when prosecutors charged UBS, the largest Swiss bank, with aiding tax evasion by U.S. clients.
UBS avoided prosecution by paying $780 million, admitting it fostered tax evasion, and giving the IRS data on more than 250 accounts. It later turned over data on another 4,450 accounts.
Prosecutors have since filed criminal charges against at least 21 foreign bankers, advisers and attorneys and about 50 U.S. taxpayers. The clients’ banks included UBS; Zurich-based Credit Suisse, the second-largest Swiss bank; and London-based HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), Europe ’s largest bank, prosecutors said.
Target of Probe On July 15, Credit Suisse said it was a target of a criminal probe over former cross-border private-banking services for U.S. customers. Six days later, seven current and former Credit Suisse bankers were indicted on a charge of conspiring to help U.S. clients evade taxes through secret accounts.
Prosecutors also secured an indictment on Feb. 2 against Wegelin & Co., the 270-year-old private bank that was the first Swiss lender to be criminally charged.
The IRS said 33,000 U.S. taxpayers with offshore accounts have avoided prosecution since 2009 by entering a limited amnesty program, paying back taxes and identifying those who helped them hide their accounts from authorities. Hundreds of taxpayers in the program gave prosecutors information that has helped build criminal cases against bankers and advisers.
HSBC’s Swiss private bank has provided lists of employees to assist the U.S. with investigations into tax evasion, a Geneva-based spokesman for the firm said yesterday.
Tax Compliance Act The debate over the Swiss protocol comes as the administration seeks to implement the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or FATCA. Congress passed the measure as part of a jobs package in 2010. It is estimated to generate $8.7 billion over 10 years, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation.
FATCA bypasses other governments and applies to non-U.S. banks. The banks must report the identities of their U.S. customers to the IRS and withhold money from the accounts of customers who don’t provide enough information.
Charles Miller , a Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment on Paul’s opposition to the protocol. Dean Patterson, an IRS spokesman, and Sabrina Siddiqui, a Treasury spokeswoman, declined to immediately comment.
To contact the reporters on this story: David Voreacos in Newark, New Jersey , at dvoreacos@bloomberg.net ; Richard Rubin in Washington at rrubin12@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net ; Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net
THE TREATY TRAP IS SET --- IBEC UNVEILS "YES" POSTER CAMPAIGN
IBEC UNVEILS "YES" POSTER CAMPAIGN
MARY MINIHAN
The business lobby group Ibec has unveiled a poster campaign calling for a Yes vote in the fiscal treaty referendum in Dublin city centre this morning.
The posters say: "Secure Ireland's Future". Ibec director general Danny McCoy said he believed a No vote would increase the amount of time Ireland would spend in austerity and would hamper recovery, while a Yes vote would give confidence and certainty. "What Ireland needs now is growth," he said.
Mr McCoy said people making decisions about investment in Ireland were "a little bit bemused I suppose that we would be risking our access to markets by even contemplating a No vote".
He said there was no need for scaremongering, but he believed a Yes vote would send a very positive signal.
Ibec president Julie O'Neill said a Yes vote would drive growth and recovery in the economy but a No vote would increase uncertainty and increase the cost of servicing the State's debt.
"Driving Ireland's recovery is very important, and Europe is a very important part of that," Ms O'Neill said. "A No vote would be a dangerous step into the unknown that would leave Ireland on the sidelines of Europe and add to our economic difficulties."
SWEDISH CISCO & NASA HACKER IDENTIFIED & INDICTED IN 2004
SWEDISH CISCO & NASA HACKER IDENTIFIED & INDICTED IN 2004
May 7th, 2009, 09:47GMT·By Lucian Constantine
U.S. authorities investigating the 2004 theft of the Cisco IOS and two computer intrusions at NASA, have identified Philip Gabriel Pettersson, a 21-year-old Swedish citizen, as being the person responsible. The hacker has been indicted on five counts of intentionally causing damage to a protected computer and trade-secret misappropriation.
During May 2004, Pettersson, known to the hacking community as "Stakkato," successfully hacked into a secure computer at Cisco from where he downloaded the source code for Cisco Internetwork Operating System (IOS) version 12.3, a proprietary application used to manage the routers produced and sold by the company.
The approximately 800MB source code was subsequently leaked onto the Internet, raising serious security concerns amongst industry professionals, who feared that hackers would be able to easily identify holes in the system and attack routing equipment. Three of the charges outlined in the indictment are related to the Cisco incident and are each punishable with a maximum sentence of ten years in prison, followed by three years of supervised probation and a fine of up to $250,000.
However, Cisco was not the only victim of the then 16-year-old hacker from Sweden. Also, in May 2004, Pettersson is said to have hacked into computers located at the NASA Ames Research Center, in California, and at NASA's Advanced Supercomputing Division (NAS). For these intrusions, Stakkato has been charged with two counts of intentionally causing damage to a protected computer, for which he faces sentences identical to the ones for the Cisco transgressions.
"The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI; U.S. Secret Service; NASA Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations, Computer Crimes Division; and numerous additional federal agencies," is noted in a Department of Justice press release. Swedish authorities are said to have cooperated, however, since Sweden does not extradite its citizens, it is unlikely that Pettersson will ever be trialed in the U.S.
The investigators tracked the attacks back to a computer at the Uppsala University, a computer that was hacked by Pettersson in 2004, along with machines from two other Swedish universities. The teenage hacker has already been charged in Sweden for those intrusions and has been ordered to pay $25,000 as restitution.
According to Wired, the only way Philip Gabriel Pettersson will face the new charges is if he is arrested outside of Sweden or if the Swedish authorities agree to prosecute him in the country on request.
TRAPATTONI TAKEN OFF EARLY AS EDNA MAKES IT TO THE MOUNTAIN
Ireland is known for Holy Mountains. Easter week, a seaspout forms moving up the side of a small mountain across a barely visible 20 foot Cross erected on the top of the hill at Bray Head, Co. wicklow, Ireland.
WATCH THE VIDEO AT THIS LINK:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0414/breaking9.html
TRAPATTONI TAKEN OFF EARLY AS EDNA MAKES IT TO IRELAND'S MOST HOLY MOUNTAIN
Trapattoni taken off early as Enda makes it to the mountain top
Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Republic of Ireland soccer manager Giovanni Trapattoni have taken part in a charity climb on Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo.
An estimated 1,500 people joined Mr Kenny and Mr Trapattoni on the trek.
Many supporters were wearing their green jerseys ahead of the Euro 2012 Championships.
Mr Trapattoni said he shared his birthday with St Patrick's Day and feels the saint is protecting him in his personal and professional life.
The Irish soccer squad will make their own pilgrimage to Poland in June for Euro 2012.
Mr Trapattoni described Croagh Patrick as a special place, and said he hopes this visit will bring luck to the boys in green.
The charity initiative will benefit Mayo Mountain Rescue, Western Alzheimers, Mayo Roscommon Hospice, Western Care and the John Giles Foundation.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
KEY CONSERVATIVES OPPOSE EXPORT IMPORT BANK
KEY CONSERVATIVES OPPOSE EXPORT IMPORT BANK
by David Harsanyi 04/29/2012 + HUMANEVENTS.COM
Conservative organizations are mobilizing to stop reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank of the United States before the institution’s authority expires at the end of May.
It’s about time. The Ex-Im Bank is the official export credit agency of the U.S. government. Established in 1934 by an executive order, its purpose was to finance foreign purchases of the United States. It became an independent agency in 1945.
The Ex-Im Bank is an organization that rewards private-sector companies based on their political standing rather than their economic merit—dispensing corporate welfare in an attempt to determine winners and losers. Solyndra, for instance, received over $10 million in loan guarantees via the “Renewable Express” program, created to aid renewable energy industry companies that are unable to compete in the market.
Critics point out that Ex-Im guaranteed $8.4 billion of loans to Boeing—or nearly the entire Ex-Im loan guarantees for 2009. The next year, Boeing was awarded $6.4 billion in loan guarantees, or 63 percent of all its loan guarantees for the year.
As Sallie James, a trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies, put it: “The Ex-Im Bank claims to correct market failure, but it introduces distortions into the economy and inserts politics into what should be purely commercial decisions.”
And Heritage Action for America recommended a “no” vote.
President Barack Obama would like to expand the Bank’s $100 billion finance cap by at least 35 percent. The Ex-Im Bank claims that it doesn’t add to the federal deficit. Not yet. But by distorting markets and injecting still more politics into economic decisions, it does more than enough damage already.
David Harsanyi is a senior reporter at Human Events. Follow @davidharsanyi.
by David Harsanyi 04/29/2012 + HUMANEVENTS.COM
Conservative organizations are mobilizing to stop reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank of the United States before the institution’s authority expires at the end of May.
It’s about time. The Ex-Im Bank is the official export credit agency of the U.S. government. Established in 1934 by an executive order, its purpose was to finance foreign purchases of the United States. It became an independent agency in 1945.
The Ex-Im Bank is an organization that rewards private-sector companies based on their political standing rather than their economic merit—dispensing corporate welfare in an attempt to determine winners and losers. Solyndra, for instance, received over $10 million in loan guarantees via the “Renewable Express” program, created to aid renewable energy industry companies that are unable to compete in the market.
Critics point out that Ex-Im guaranteed $8.4 billion of loans to Boeing—or nearly the entire Ex-Im loan guarantees for 2009. The next year, Boeing was awarded $6.4 billion in loan guarantees, or 63 percent of all its loan guarantees for the year.
As Sallie James, a trade policy analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Trade Policy Studies, put it: “The Ex-Im Bank claims to correct market failure, but it introduces distortions into the economy and inserts politics into what should be purely commercial decisions.”
And Heritage Action for America recommended a “no” vote.
President Barack Obama would like to expand the Bank’s $100 billion finance cap by at least 35 percent. The Ex-Im Bank claims that it doesn’t add to the federal deficit. Not yet. But by distorting markets and injecting still more politics into economic decisions, it does more than enough damage already.
David Harsanyi is a senior reporter at Human Events. Follow @davidharsanyi.
LIFE ON THE LINE: LANDOWNERS FIGHT TRANSCANADA KEYSTONE XL & EMINENT DOMAIN
LIFE ON THE LINE: LANDOWNERS FIGHT KEYSTONE XL & EMINENT DOMAIN
April 19, 2012 + By TERRENCE HENRT @ STATEIMPACT.NPR.ORG
READ MORE STORIES FROM U.S. LANDOWNERS & U.S. RANCHERS & FARMERS OPPOSED TO THE TRANSCANADA KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE HERE:
http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/04/19/lives-on-the-line-landowners-fight-keystone-xl-and-eminent-domain/
This is the third of a four-part collaborative series by StateImpact Texas and StateImpact Oklahoma on the Keystone XL pipeline. You can read part one of our series here and part two of our series here.
The Keystone XL pipeline will go through 17 counties in Texas, crossing the property of 850 landowners. And not all of them are happy about it.
High on that list is David Daniel, a carpenter in Winnsboro, north of Tyler. He bought twenty acres of land here about six years ago and moved out with his wife and daughter. Their land is lush with hundred-year-old hardwoods, and lots of fresh water that bubbles up in springs and seeps.
THIS LAND WAS YOUR LAND, NOW IT'S OUR LAND! --- GO TO WEBSITE TO DOWNLAND THIS STORY AND READ MORE AT:
http://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/2012/04/19/lives-on-the-line-landowners-fight-keystone-xl-and-eminent-domain/
But pretty soon a liquid of a very different type could be making its way through his property: Heavy oil harvested from sand pits in Canada, carried by the Keystone XL pipeline. And part of what makes Daniel bitter is how he found out about it.
UNWELCOME GUESTS!
“Yeah, these are their survey stakes,” he says, pointing to slim orange and white planks coming out of the ground. “Four years ago, my neighbor called me and said that people had been trespassing our property. I come out and walk the property and find that it had been fully surveyed and staked.”
The stakes belong to TransCanada, a pipeline company from Calgary.
Not long after finding the stakes, David Daniel got a letter from TransCanada. They said they wanted to survey his land for the pipeline. He told them they already had, but the company claimed that was a mistake. A spokesperson for the pipeline, Jim Prescott, tells StateImpact Texas that they had inadvertently surveyed Daniel’s land based on old property records.
“I didn’t buy that,” Daniel recalls. “So, you have trespassing and just lying right off the bat. We weren’t off to a good start.”
So Daniel decided not to allow TransCanada to survey his land, and a few months later, he got another letter. It was from one of the pipeline company’s attorneys. They said he should let them survey his land, because they had power of eminent domain.
That didn’t make a lot of sense to Daniel, so he decided to give the company’s attorney a call.
“And he said, well, I’ve got only one question for you,” Daniel remembers. “I just need to know which pile to put you in. The cooperative pile or the [expletive]-ing uncooperative pile,” Daniels recalls the attorney saying, referring to what kind of landowner he was going to be in regards to the pipeline.
Not surprisingly, this intimidated Daniel. So he set up an arrangement with TransCanada. They could come survey his land, provided they gave him 24 hours notice and he was present when they entered his property. He says he’s counted at least ten times since then that TransCanada has failed to honor that agreement.
WHY DOES KEYSTONE XL HAVE EMINENT DOMAIN?
“Well, we follow the law. It’s very simple,” Jim Prescott, the project representative for the Keystone XL pipeline, tells StateImpact Texas of the company’s dealings with landowners. He says they’re allowed to use eminent domain to build across private property. Why? Because that oil will end up being available to the public.
“Under the law, a pipeline like this qualifies, like a utility service qualifies, as serving the public good,” he says, just like a telephone line or water pipe.
So even if a landowner like David Daniel refuses to sign an agreement, TransCanada can still build the pipeline on his property.
The company initially offered Daniel over two thousand dollars to build the pipeline across an acre and a half of his land. He turned that down. Over the course of a few years, they gradually increased their offer, finally coming in at a little over thirteen thousand dollars.
“They said, this is the best you’re gonna get,” Daniel remembers. “If you don’t take this offer, we’re going to take you to court. And you’ll start at zero.”
So, as many Texans have done, he signed an agreement. TransCanada says they have easements signed with 99 percent of the Texas landowners on the pipeline’s route. And some of them are perfectly happy with it, like Marshall Treadwell, a retired teacher who owns a family farm in Rusk County, where they grow pine trees and hunt. “I can’t imagine getting a fairer price,” he says of TransCanada’s offer for an easement on his land. “They were as straightforward and easy to talk to as anybody I’ve ever dealt with.” But he says that if he didn’t want the pipeline on his land, he wouldn’t want the company to use eminent domain against him.
OVER ONE HUNDRED EMINENT DOMAIN CLAIMS
If you look at a map of pipelines in Texas, they form an intricate spiderweb across the state. Most of them are dug underground and can be nearly forgotten once completed. But restrictions remain on building or digging in the easements, which are indefinite. And landowners like Daniel worry construction (which cuts a much wider swath than the actual pipeline) will destroy those hundred year-old hardwoods and natural springs. It’s no surprise that some private property owners don’t want a pipeline going through their land, particularly one with the safety concerns of the Keystone XL.
And when they don’t want to sign, TransCanada uses eminent domain. They say they do so in a “rare” and “limited” manner. “We prefer not to, quite frankly,” says TransCanada’s Jim Prescott. “It’s costly. It’s time consuming. It generates, I think, ill will.”
But in a review of court records, StateImpact Texas found over a hundred different eminent domain claims by TransCanada. That’s over ten percent of the landowners involved. Fifty of those ended up as judgements, while several others were dissolved after landowners settled with TransCanada. It’s easy to understand why. It’s expensive for landowners to fight back. Taking a company like TransCanada to court is a process that could take years and tens of thousands of dollars. And landowners who fight eminent domain claims may end up getting paid less as a result.
THE FARMER -V- THE PIPELINE
"You know, first off, a Canadian company saying they want to take your land, that makes you start thinking,” says Julia Trigg Crawford, a Lamar County farmer who has garnered attention for her efforts to refuse the pipeline access to her land. “And as I did my research, this was not just your mom’s every day pipeline you’re talking about.”
TransCanada wants to route the pipeline through a hay patch on Crawford’s land, through Caddo Indian lands and an adjacent creek that she has water rights to. But she’s refused, citing concerns about preserving Indian artifacts and potential damage to the creek, and even went so far as to take out a restraining order against a company that was later dissolved. Now she’s taking TransCanada to court, with a hearing scheduled for June 13.
“The issue, when you boil it down, is property rights,” Crawford says. “A foreign company’s ability to come in and take your land, that’s a property rights issue. And it doesn’t matter what political bent you are. Nobody – in Texas, especially – wants to be told someone’s going to come in and take your land.”
There are three other landowners who still haven’t signed an agreement with the company, some of whom are also taking the fight to court. They may ultimately lose. But it could be their last stand. TransCanada says they’ll start building the pipeline this summer.
Tomorrow our series will look in-depth at the history of eminent domain law in Texas, and how some of the cases surrounding the pipeline could change private property rights in a lasting way.
*Correction: the on-air audio version of this story reported that TransCanada is based in Vancouver. The company is in fact headquartered in Calgary.
NEBRASKANS ASK ABOUT THE OGALLALA AQUIFER & LEGALITY OF TRANSCANADA KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE
NEBRASKANS ASK ABOUT THE OGALLALA AQUIFER & LEGALITY OF TRANSCANADA KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE
BioFuels and Energy | Environment 04/27/2012
In the beginning, the fight by Nebraska ranchers against the Keystone XL pipeline was about protecting the vital Ogallala Aquifer. Somewhere along the way, concerns about water disappeared.
By Lisa Song — InsideClimate News
It wasn't that long ago that the people of Holt County, Neb. thought they had made a real impact on national policy.
Their opposition to the Keystone XL oil pipeline led project owner TransCanada to move the pipeline out of the Nebraska Sandhills, a fragile ecosystem that overlies the Ogallala aquifer. The company's release of the new route last week seemed to solidify that victory.
But some local landowners are feeling far from celebratory. They say their primary goal was to protect the Ogallala aquifer, but somewhere along the way, people became so intent on protecting the Sandhills that the true objective was lost.
"Water has always been first and foremost in our mind," said Tom Genung of Hastings, Neb., who owns ranchland in Holt County. "We were promised everything would be okay if [the pipeline] got out of the Sandhills ... but it's not."
TransCanada's new route is currently just a "corridor"—a 2,000-foot wide path that will eventually be whittled down to a narrower route. It is among several possible routes identified in a 54-page report that TransCanada submitted last week to Nebraska's Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the state agency in charge of the pipeline's environmental review.
The company's preferred corridor avoids the Sandhills of southwest Holt County, just as TransCanada promised it would. But it still crosses through northern Holt County, where the soil is often sandy and permeable and the water table is high—the same characteristics that make the Sandhills so vulnerable to the impact of an oil spill.
In some parts of the new corridor, the groundwater lies so close to the surface that the pipeline would run through the aquifer instead of over it. (See map of TransCanada's preferred Keystone XL route above.)
Hydrogeologist Jim Goeke, a professor emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said an oil spill in northern Holt County would contaminate the local groundwater, just as it would in southwestern Holt County. "You still have the same kind of problems, essentially, but you get around the Sandhills, and that was the purpose of the rerouting."
The landowners' disappointment is compounded by the popular perception that the new route has addressed Nebraskans' concerns.
Ken Winston, a policy advocate with the Nebraska Sierra Club said some of those involved in the original fight have "kind of a sense of, 'well, we won that battle didn't we, so why do we have to refight it?'"
Winston said his group will continue to oppose the pipeline. "The main message we've been sending to our members is, the fight isn't over ... and that the latest routing proposal is just another example of why we need to continue fighting."
But the fight this time is being waged with fewer resources. Last fall, combined pressure from thousands of Nebraskans and national environmental groups forced Nebraska lawmakers to hold a special session to hammer out the Sandhills reroute. Since then, many organizations have pulled back, leaving local groups like Winston's Sierra Club chapter and Jane Kleeb's Bold Nebraska more or less on their own.
"Part of it is just that there are so many issues out there for environmental groups to work on," Winston said. "There's still support, it's just not on the same level. We still have connections. There's definitely no alienation or anything like that."
He said it's also harder to motivate people to fight when TransCanada has yet to submit their federal permit application. "It's kind of like punching at air."
Sandhills vs. the Aquifer
Much of the debate over the success of the reroute comes from the perception that protecting the Sandhills is the same as protecting the aquifer. The Ogallala aquifer is a critically important water source spanning eight states. Nebraska's ecologically sensitive Sandhills region sits directly on top of the aquifer, but the aquifer extends far beyond the Sandhills' borders.
"Originally, everyone was talking about the Sandhills and the aquifer," said Ernie Fellows, a retired rancher who lives near Mills, Neb., about three miles from where the pipeline would cross into the state. "Somehow when the special session came around the aquifer got dropped, and we've been having trouble getting people to talk about both together again."
Hydrogeologist Jim Goeke said the legislature's decision to "specifically concentrate on the Sandhills…left an open door for TransCanada."
The legislature's narrow focus also contradicts a letter from Neb. Gov. Dave Heineman, who wrote to President Obama [9] last August urging him to deny the pipeline, because "maintaining and protecting Nebraska's water supply is very important to me and the residents of Nebraska."
"I want to emphasize that I am not opposed to pipelines," Heineman wrote. "... I am opposed to the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline route because it is directly over the Ogallala Aquifer."
In December, the Nebraska DEQ issued a map showing the regions that the pipeline must avoid. It used the same Sandhills boundaries as a 2001 map called Ecoregions of Nebraska and Kansas.
"I think if you're protecting the ecological aspects of the Sandhills, the boundary we have is probably better than any of the other [available maps]," James Omernik, a retired EPA scientist and a principal author of the ecoregions map, told InsideClimate News last month. "If you are more concerned about the water table or sandy [soil] or any other characteristic, then you might want to build a buffer around the Sandhills that would include the characteristic you're trying to protect."
Goeke said the landowners have some valid concerns. The new route still crosses "areas with high water tables, but [it's] a lot less than the original route," he said.
Citing TransCanada's route-proposal document, Goeke said the preferred corridor would cross 10.5 miles where the groundwater lies 5 to 10 feet below the land surface, equal to "a little over six percent of the entire route through Nebraska."
Another 12.4 miles would cross where depth to water is 10 to 15 feet. The same document says the new route would not cross any regions where depth to water is between zero and five feet.
That calculation seems to ignore numerous river and stream crossings where the water lies close to the ground. Goeke speculated that TransCanada might have excluded the rivers because the company plans to bury the pipeline beneath rivers at the crossings.
InsideClimate News contacted TransCanada for comment, but the company didn't respond before deadline.
DEQ to Review Route
Now that TransCanada has chosen its preferred corridor, it's up to the DEQ to analyze the route for environmental impacts. DEQ spokesman Brian McManus said the agency will schedule informational meetings and distribute detailed maps that identify properties that could be impacted by the proposed route.
"And at that point, after we have our initial discussions with the public, and do some initial review, we're going to provide some feedback to TransCanada," McManus said. "Then is when it really gets into the detailed review process. TransCanada would finalize the route and submit it to the state for evaluation."
McManus said he could not comment on the technical aspects of the environmental review. He directed InsideClimate News to DEQ director Mike Linder, but Linder was not available to comment before deadline.
Pipeline opponents are wary of the DEQ process because they say it is less rigorous and less transparent than the review guidelines being drafted by the Public Service Commission. A bill that passed in November placed the PSC in charge of the Keystone XL review, but another bill called LB 1161, signed into law last week, gave DEQ control of the project.
Any route approved by the DEQ will be given to the governor for evaluation. Gov. Heineman has repeatedly expressed his support for the pipeline. While signing LB 1161 into law, he issued a statement that "Nebraska will move forward on the review process of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline and any future pipelines that will create jobs and reduce U.S. dependence on Middle Eastern oil."
Lisa Song is a reporter for InsideClimate News, a nonpartisan, nonprofit news gathering organization.
'YOUNG GUNS' FIRE ANOTHER SHOT FOR LUGAR IN UNITED STATES' SENATE PRIMARY
'YOUNG GUNS' FIRE ANOTHER SHOT FOR LUGAR IN UNITED STATES' SENATE PRIMARY
1:55 PM, APR 28, 2012 • BY MICHAEL WARREN
The Young Guns Network, a group affiliated with House Republican majority leader Eric Cantor, is encouraging Democrats in Indiana to vote in the May 8 GOP primary for incumbent senator Dick Lugar. Politico's Maggie Haberman first reported that the YG Network has been sending mailers to Indiana voters reminding Democrats and independents that they can register to vote in the open primary and encouraging those folks to vote for Lugar and against his conservative challenger, Richard Mourdock. Take a look:
View the rest of the mailing, which criticizes Mourdock's conservative views on eliminating federal education spending and says the choice is "between extreme cuts and mainstream Indiana leadership," here.
According to its website, the YG Network is "dedicated to supporting center-right policies and the efforts of policymakers who fight for those policies," though some conservatives may questions whether federal money spent on "investing in education" and funding the Department of Education are "center-right policies."
In related news, the American Action Network, a group founded by former GOP senator Norm Coleman and Douglas Holtz-Eakin, has halted its ad campaign on behalf of Lugar. The group had been running this television ad for the last two weeks in Indiana markets.
CANADIAN OIL FIRM SUES TO SEIZE U.S. LAND, PRIVATE PROPERTY, & AMERICAN FARMS FOR KEYSTONE XL OIL HEADED TO CHINA - MEMBERS OF THE U.S. LEGISLATIVE & EXECUTIVE BRANCH SIDE AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
CANADIAN OIL FIRM SUES TO SEIZE U.S. LAND, PRIVATE PROPERTY, & AMERICAN FARMS FOR KEYSTONE XL OIL HEADED TO CHINA - MEMBERS OF THE U.S. LEGISLATIVE & EXECUTIVE BRANCH SIDE AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
OBAMA & CLINTON'S SECRETIVE ILLINOIS TRANSCANADA KEYSTONE XL DECISION & CAMPAIGN ON BEHALF OF INTERNATIONAL GLOBAL WARMING LAW FIRM EMPLOYEES --- WON'T EVEN RELEASE FOIA RECORDS TO THE INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY RESEARCH (IER)
OBAMA & CLINTON'S SECRETIVE ILLINOIS TRANSCANADA KEYSTONE XL DECISION & CAMPAIGN ON BEHALF OF INTERNATIONAL GLOBAL WARMING LAW FIRM EMPLOYEES --- WON'T EVEN RELEASE FOIA RECORDS TO THE INSTITUTE FOR ENERGY RESEARCH (IER)
Published: 12:03 PM 04/19/2012
By Ken Blackwell Former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.
The oppressive monster known as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not just killing jobs these days — it is intentionally avoiding transparency that may shed light on the political motivations behind the agency’s actions.
Started in 1970 by President Richard Nixon, the EPA began as a small agency that combined several anti-pollution and clean water agencies into one agency with 4,084 employees and a $1 billion budget. Today, it has 17,000 employees and has evolved from its narrow focus into an unconstitutional, blunt instrument with vast powers that the Obama administration wields to promote a radical political agenda that is destroying prosperity and ruining lives.
In March, the U.S. Supreme Court decided unanimously in Sackett v. EPA against the agency. The Sacketts, a young married couple in Idaho, started building their dream home in 2005 but fell victim to an EPA compliance order that charged them with putting fill material onto a wetlands on their property.
When the Sacketts tried to appeal the EPA’s decision, they were told that there was no appeals process unless the agency intended to file an enforcement action that would include significant civil and criminal penalties. While two lower courts ruled in favor of the EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously for the Sacketts, declaring that decisions made under the jurisdiction of the Clean Water Act were subject to an appeal.
While that battle was won, the EPA’s war on the free market and economic prosperity continues. Even though Congress did not pass legislation to limit carbon emissions or create a “cap and trade” scheme, the EPA has developed burdensome and often contradictory regulations specially designed to harm the same petroleum refining industry America must depend on for any semblance of energy independence.
EPA’s politically motivated regulations aimed at the oil industry also hurt consumers. Just this week, the National Automobile Dealers Association released a study showing that EPA’s new fuel economy standards will make cars so much more expensive that some 7 million working families and college students will not be able to afford them.
But perhaps most egregiously, EPA overreach was a major factor in why no decision on the Keystone XL pipeline will be made until after the 2012 elections. If approved, the pipeline would create tens of thousands of jobs while providing Americans with access to as much as 800,000 barrels of Canadian oil.
To find out what was going on behind the scenes in the Keystone XL decision, the Institute for Energy Research (IER) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Obama’s State Department and EPA. The goal was to understand if politics and special interest group pressure entered into the decision to delay the pipeline.
But while extreme environmental groups like Friends of the Earth, which opposes the pipeline, had no problem receiving similar information after its FOIA request, IER’s request has been delayed. After four months and multiple submissions, the Obama administration has refused to comply, violating FOIA standards. The decision to delay the Keystone Pipeline was clearly so politicized that the agencies involved are willing to break the law to cover their tracks. This can hardly be the transparent government that the president promised us when he ran for president in 2008.
EPA overreach, including that on the Keystone Pipeline, destroys the jobs that workers need to pay for the higher gas prices for which EPA is largely responsible. Everyone is in favor of cleaner air and a better environment, but EPA makes no attempt to strike a balance between economic opportunity and environmental gains.
Through greenhouse gas rules, unrealistic fuel economy standards and now its opposition to Keystone, EPA seems hell-bent on making oil — the energy that powers our economy — a fuel of the past. Right now, that philosophy is hitting Americans right in the wallet.
It’s time to limit the tyrannical, unelected and hyper-political bureaucracy. That starts with exposing the politics behind the EPA’s Keystone XL position.
Ken Blackwell, a fellow at the Family Research Council, is on the board of directors of the Club For Growth.
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